Chiapas: Colem Group of Women takes action against feminicide

March for the Itzel case, 14 May 2012 @ SIPAZ

On 15 October, the Group of Women of San Cristóbal de Las Casas-Colem published a press-release regarding the present situation of women in the state of Chiapas with regard to feminicide. They denounce that generalized violence continues against women in Chiapas, that women do not have access to justice, and that from September 2012 to present there have been more than 50 murders of women, including more than 40 feminicides, and that 132 others have been subjected to violent crimes.

Among these different questions of concern, they stressed the lack of attention paid to women from governmental structures, and the insecurity that women in the state suffer from. In the public text they pose the following questions: “What will happen with the control of taxi-drivers, security, and vigilance for families? When will the attorney general arrest Itzel’s murderer, who continues to be free? Or will it continue to be occupied in persecuting and detaining women who decided that it has been enough, demanding or leaving a violent relation, due to ‘attempted murder,’ harassment taken to the DIF: when will they arrest the rapists and those responsible for other aggressions, and stop justifying these acts, especially against women?” They add: “There also exists the lack of access to justice for women, who live within a context of insecurity and impunity that enables the reproduction of violence and inhibits women from seeking out justice.”

Beyond this, they discussed reproductive rights, among other things, indicating that women in Chiapas find themselves in a “climate of persecution against those women who decide to interrupt pregnancies,” and also with regard to the question of sexual exploitation, aggravated as it is by “the presence of official armed groups and non-official ones,” it is women who are “condemned for these crimes, passing from being victims to criminals, leaving those responsible free.”